Salon interviews former Georgia Senator Max Cleland about troubles the 9/11 Commission (which he is still a member of) is having in obtaining documents from not just the White House.

] Let me walk you through this thing here. First of all,
] we're not talking about a prescription drug plan under
] Medicare here. We're talking about the most serious
] assault on the homeland of the United States since the
] British invaded during the war of 1812. This is the deal.
] The joint inquiry made up of Democrats and Republican
] members of Congress, they issued a report [this summer],
] but they couldn't get at the PDB's. They kicked the can
] down the street so that the 9/11 commission could get at
] the full story. That's the reason for this independent
] commission, with the time and energy and staff to get at
] all of this. Had the Joint Intelligence Committee been
] able to do its job, there wouldn't have even been a 9/11
] commission.
]
] We're coming down to the final [months] of the commission
] and we're still messing around with access issues. This
] is a key item. I don't think any independent commission
] can let an agency or the White House dictate to it how
] many commissioners see what. So this "deal," we shouldn't
] be dealing. If somebody wants to deal, we issue
] subpoenas. That's the deal. That was the deal with the
] FAA, that was the deal with Norad.
]
] And the reason is principle. Clinton has agreed to
] cooperate with the commission and is eager to come before
] it. So why doesn't this White House, which was on the
] bridge when the ship got attacked, why doesn't this White
] House want to know everything that happened on their
] watch so that it can't happen again? Why they want to
] play games with this commission, to make deals, I don't
] know. It's information control. It's not transparency.
]
] I don't know if they're hiding something. But the public
] will never know and the 9/11 commission will never know
] because under the current deal, a minority of
] commissioners will see a small number of documents and
] then brief the White House on what they're going to tell
] the other commissioners. Wait a minute! That doesn't make
] any sense at all.

Former Senator Max Cleland Interview: 'The President ought to be ashamed'

Berke Breathed gives an email interview to Salon as he begins another comic strip run (yay!) on November 23 in 160 newspapers. Bloom County / Outland was definitely one of the best news strips I've ever read and I'm glad to see more new Breathed material coming out. Good interview for anybody with interest in the penguin.

] Again, in the Onion interview, you claimed that it was
] no longer possible to
] satirize American politics. In the past two years, the
] (visible) political landscape
] has changed considerably. Do you still believe it's
] impossible to satirize?

]
] I think there's both a saturation point and a failure
] point in events being beyond satire. I started stripping
] in 1981, the same month that MTV started. Daily satirical
] comment was either "Doonesbury" or "The Tonight Show."
] The horizon was clear. We had the whole playing field.
] You young punks just try to imagine that there wasn't
] even a World Wide Web. Michael Jackson jokes passed as
] edgy comedy in "Bloom County."
]
] Now. Lord, now. The din of public snarkiness is
] stupefying. We're awash in a vomitous sea of caustic
] humorous comment. I hope to occasionally wade near the
] black hole of pop references only obliquely without
] getting sucked in with everyone else. Full disclosure:
] I'll admit that I had a momentary lapse and recently
] inked a strip where Opus' mom sees a picture of Michael
] Jackson in 1983, proclaims Jacko's old nose irresistible
] and voices an urgent wish to nibble it off down to the
] nub.
]
] It took every thoughtful middle-aged fiber in my being
] for the courage to toss the finished strip. I did, but I
] wept.
]
] Now the flip side of this is when events get untouchable.
] It becomes like the occasional lampoons of supermarket
] tabloids: unfunny because they're mocking something
] that's funnier than the satire. You can't effectively
] satirize Bill Clinton getting waxed by an office vixen in
] the office of Abraham Lincoln. It's done. Over. Go home.
] Know when you're beat. It almost was physically painful
] to watch the great Garry Trudeau have to try to get a
] handle on it.

The penguin is mightier than the sword

This post was originally intended as a reply to a thread on memestreams about Bill Joy, and in the process of writing it sort of became its own topic of discussion.

I just got finished reading a few articles from Bill Joy including, "why the future doesn't need us" (search memestreams for those threads)...On some key points I agree with Mr. Joy. I agree that we are on the cusp of a potentially catastrophic era in human history. I agree that ethics is not always enough of a guiding principle in the scientific research. And I agree that in the short term limits on the spread of knowledge may be needed to avoid disaster, but I would stress that this can only be a short term solution to the problems ahead; reliance on secrecy as long term defense will be disastrous.

Joy makes a statement that we have not yet reached the point of no return in nano-technology research. This is the primary point at which I disagree with him. I feel that we passed the point of no return in 1959 when Feynman wrote his now famous “There's plenty of room at the bottom.” The idea was first conceived, and the meme began to spread. It is now to the point where it has taken hold and we can not waste valuable time arguing about whether or not we should continue with our research. I believe the research will continue with or without those of us that feel that ethics must be of supreme consideration in the development of potentially dangerous technologies.

I very much like his idea of a hippocratic oath for technologist, engineers, and scientists; though I don't believe this goes far enough.

If people believe, as I do, that nano-technology is in our future, then we must prepare for its consequences. As I have expressed on a number of occasions, only those in control of the technology can shape its future.

In the 1940's when the United States was the only nuclear power, did policy makers believe simple containment of knowledge for the creation of nuclear weapons would stop nuclear proliferation? If policy makers believed this was an absolute solution then history has clearly shown them wrong.

Restricting the spread of knowledge does not stop others from developing that knowledge independently; this is what policy makers must come to understand.

All that is needed to insure the eventual acquisition of a given knowledge is the continued belief in its utility.

Re-read that last sentence as it is the central point that I am trying to make. The spreading of a meme of this sort is all that is needed to inspire others to attain the knowledge for themselves. Thus other safeguards must be in place to insure the safe and ethical use of this knowledge.

Something needs to be said for keeping such knowledge secret. It does work to slow the spread of knowledge but ultimately can not stop it. That is to say, while there is a continued belief in the utility of such knowledge it will eventually be attained by... [ Read More (0.8k in body) ]

Thoughts on Nano-Technology, dooms-day, and chicken little...

PhreakNIC, for those of you raised by wolves, is an annual technology and culture exhibition (the kinder, gentler name for "Hacker Convention") in Nashville, TN. This year's event is all over, except for a few blood tests that we're still awaiting results on, but if you missed it you can catch some of the events through the video feeds. Wilpig was nice enough to set up a recorder on ConTV, but unfortunately it crashed a couple of times. Some of the best attended talks were lost.

Seriously, just download the .avi files, as they are smaller (DiVX Format) and have been edited. The raw .wmv files are labeled based on the original schedule, not the actual execution of such schedule. For instance, the cable feed wasn't set up for the Welcome, so if you download it you'll be cursing at the fact that you have an hour of Nashville Tourism commercials.

Videos from PhreakNIC 7 Online

] But while there's nothing particularly bleeding-edge
] about eating the hamburger but not the bun, now that
] low-carb dieting has gone mainstream, the diet does
] appear to hold a special attraction for hackers,
] programmers and other close-to-the-machine dwellers. For
] some geeks, the low-carb diet is itself a clever hack, a
] sneaky algorithm for getting the body to do what you want
] it to do, a way of reprogramming yourself. Programmers,
] who are used to making their computers serve their will,
] are now finding that low-carb diets enable the same kind
] of control over their bodies.
]
] Doctorow, who lost 75 pounds by cutting out
] carbohydrates, sees a natural affinity between his
] brethren and the diet: "Read the
] alt.support.diet.low-carb FAQ, and you'll find people
] attacking their bodies like they would attack a logic
] board," he says. "Substitute 'faster bus speed' for
] 'metabolism,' and you've got something pretty close to an
] overclocking FAQ, he adds, referring to a practice
] popular with hardware hackers in which computer
] processors are tweaked so that they run faster than their
] out-of-the-box speeds.

I've been trying to convince Dementia to join me on a revisit to the land of Atkins after I get back from China, because one thing you do need is moral support. You gotta have someone that's in it with you. Anyway, I thought this was a very interesting article in the fact that (1) Cory Doctorow wrote a story about hacking his body and now we learn that he has pretty much done that and (2) it's timely in accordance with what I've been doing and want to ramp up in another week.

Hackers on Atkins

] Geek care and feeding is easier than many think, because
] we are generally healthiest when left to our own devices.
] This doesn't mean we can't do things together; but we do
] thrive when given a little time to do our own thing.
] (This conveniently frees you from having to be part of
] it.)

MSN Dating & Personals - Loving your geek, tolerating his hobbies

] John Mayer is the best thing to happen to vanilla sex
] since the missionary position. Much like the regularly
] maligned ice cream flavor, kinkless intercourse has
] always been tastier than advertised. So when the
] musically and sexually adventurous alike dismiss Mayer's
] Berklee-tutored guitar and Abercrombie-swaddled purr as
] aural Vicodin for soccer moms and timid schoolgirls, it
] only goes to show how limited a palette both kinds of
] fetishists have. In fact, Mayer's new "Heavier Things" is
] just the thing to heat your bathwater on those occasions
] when you don't want to get your freak on -- but you're
] still game for seeing where some heavy petting might
] lead.

I had to meme this because I know that nanochick is such a huge fan of John Mayer.

His body (of work) is a wonderland

] "He pointed out a relatively remote baseball diamond that
] was enclosed in a chain-link fence," Neel recalled in an
] interview with Salon. "I could see these people behind
] the fence, with their faces up against it, and their
] hands on the wire." (The ACLU posted photos of the
] demonstrators and supporters at that event on its Web
] site.) "It looked more like a concentration camp than a
] free speech area to me, so I said, 'I'm not going in
] there. I thought the whole country was a free speech
] area.'" The detective asked Neel, 66, to go to the area
] six or eight times, and when he politely refused, he
] handcuffed and arrested the retired steelworker on a
] charge of disorderly conduct. When Neel's sister argued
] against his arrest, she was cuffed and hauled off as
] well. The two spent the president's visit in a firehouse
] that was serving as Secret Service and police
] headquarters for the event.
]
] It appears that the Neels' experience is not unique. Late
] last month, on Sept. 23, the American Civil Liberties
] Union filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Philadelphia
] against the Secret Service, alleging that the agency, a
] unit of the new Homeland Security Department charged with
] protecting the president, vice president and other key
] government officials, instituted a policy in the months
] even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks of instructing
] local police to cordon off protesters from the president
] and Vice President Dick Cheney. Plaintiffs include the
] National Organization for Women, ACORN, USA Action and
] United for Justice, and groups and individuals who have
] been penned up during presidential visits, or arrested
] for refusing to go into a "free speech area," in places
] ranging from California to New Mexico, Missouri,
] Connecticut, New Jersey, South Carolina and elsewhere in
] Pennsylvania.

'I thought the whole country was a free speech zone.'

] Repossessed BMWs. Foreclosed McMansions. Pawned Rolexes.
]
] Such is the stuff of personal bankruptcy when a go-go
] lifestyle built on consumer excess runs up against
] financial reality.
]
] Or is it? Could it be that those tarnished icons of
] dead-end decadence are just as much an overhyped myth as
] the hordes of teenage day-traders back in 1999 who
] supposedly beat Wall Street's best brokers without ever
] leaving the comfort of their bedrooms?
]
] The biggest predictor that a person will end up bankrupt
] turns out not to be a bad Prada habit or a taste for
] sub-zero refrigerators. It's having children, according
] to the mother-and-daughter authors of "The Two-Income
] Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers are Going
] Broke."

A very interesting article, to say the least. I have to agree with the authors that the behavior of parents in an effort to provide for their children is what has gotten many in trouble. At least, from personal experiences that I've seen. Worrying about getting into "the best" school district, no matter what the cost of the mortgage or rent payments is listed as the biggest culprit.

I had a conversation very much along these lines with a coworker before she had her first child - she and her husband were looking at school districts and deciding whether to remodel or move houses. This is before the child is even born! My logic was that school wouldn't start for at least 6 years and by that point "the best" school would be some other new suburban area. I think a lot has to do with the fact that the newest schools get the best toys, rather than keeping all of the districts at a similar level.

Americans are NOT going broke over lattes!

crankymessiah wrote:
] ] Since the earliest research into the the English Language
] ] as spoken in North America was begun by Noah Webster in
] ] the early 18th century, the regional variations in
] ] dialect have always been the most challenging and
] ] difficult to explain field. Since the development of
] ] carbonated beverage in 1886, one of linguistic
] ] geography's most important and least investigated
] ] phenomena has been the sharp regional divisions in the
] ] use of the terms "pop" and "soda." Due to the domination
] ] of hard-line conservative lingusitic geographers in such
] ] leading institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford and
] ] the University of the West Indies, this dilemma has been
] ] swept under the rug . . . until now. Using the new
] ] technologies of the Internet and the World Wide Web, I
] ] and my colleagues at the California Institute of
] ] Technology and Lewis & Clark College are undertaking a
] ] bold new research into this fascinating area.
]
] Great maps to go along with this.

It's neither. It's Coke. Then there are lots of different kinds of Coke, like Pepsi, Dr. Pepper and Co-Cola. Well, at least South of the Mason-Dixon line.

RE: The Pop vs. Soda Page